Three is a magic number for Bob Dorough

His song inspired creation of 'Schoolhouse Rock!'

June 25, 2010|By Kathy Lauer-Williams, OF THE MORNING CALL

It was a simple enough request. Write a ditty to help children learn their multiplication tables.

Northampton County jazz musician Bob Dorough was moonlighting as a jingle writer for an ad agency in 1973. He responded to the assignment with "Three is a Magic Number." That song helped to change children's television.

The three-minute song was catchy and witty. (Example of lyrics: "The past and the present and the future. Faith and Hope and Charity. The heart and the brain and the body. Give you three as a magic number.")

The song, set to animation, became the pilot episode of "Schoolhouse Rock!" With Dorough as musical director, "Schoolhouse Rock!" wound up as a series of more than 60 animated shorts that aired continuously for 13 years.

"I just sort of stumbled on it," says Dorough, 86, of Upper Mount Bethel Township. "I was in the right place at the right time."

Now Dorough says he "can hardly work a gig without doing a 'Schoolhouse Rock!' number." He adds, "I always jazz it up."

Dorough is a respected jazzman who immersed himself in the New York City scene in the 1950s and recorded with legendary band leader/trumpeter Miles Davis. Dorough has released 15 jazz CDs and appeared on more than 20 others, including Miles Davis' "Sorcerer."

But it's the iconic series of animated educational songs about math, grammar, politics and science for which Dorough is best known. "Schoolhouse Rock!" became a touchstone for many children who watched Saturday morning cartoons in the 1970s and 1980s and spawned the musical revue "Schoolhouse Rock Live!" in 1993.

The show, which has been performed hundreds of times, opened at Muhlenberg's Summer Music Theatre this week.

"The songs are all so good I think we got through to young people," Dorough says. "Parents left them to watch TV and eat their Wheaties and they kind of got brainwashed. It's just grown and grown over the years."

Dorough never dreamed a song about the multiples of three would be so successful.

"The idea came from an advertising executive whose little boy couldn't memorize his multiplication tables but could sing all the lyrics of Jimi Hendrix songs," Dorough says.

The adman, David McCall, asked him to write a song but cautioned, "Don't write down to children."

"I said, 'Now you're talking my language,' " Dorough recalls.

Dorough wrote and recorded "Three is a Magic Number." McCall loved the song, and his art director immediately started sketching a cartoon to match the lyrics.

Pleased with the animated result, Dorough wrote a set of 11 songs that dealt with the multiples of the numbers 2 through 9, 11, 12 as well as "My Hero Zero."

"I had a natural mathematical talent," he says.

One of the clients of the ad agency was television network ABC. At the time, Dorough says, parental lobby groups were complaining about the violence and commercialism on cartoons and demanding more educational fare.

"The climate was right," Dorough says. "I recorded all the songs, played it for ABC and suddenly they were on TV."

Dorough wrote all the music and lyrics for the first season of the show, which was dubbed "Multiplication Rock." He also sang on all but three of the songs, and became the musical director for the series.

As the popularity of the series grew, other songwriters were brought in to help pen the songs including Lynn Ahrens, who with Stephen Flaherty wrote the scores for Broadway's "Ragtime" and "Suessical."

The second season dubbed "Grammar Rock" included four episodes written by Dorough – "Verb: That's What's Happening"; "Lolly, Lolly, Lolly, Get Your Adverbs Here"; "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla," and "Conjunction Junction," which was voted the best song of the series on its 30th anniversary.

The series continued, exploring science, politics, money and computers and earning four Emmy Awards. It ended in 1986, after 13 years.

"I kept wondering if kids were really watching it," Dorough says. "Then one night I was working in a jazz club and someone said, 'Your voice sounds familiar.' "

After that, Dorough began playing "Conjunction Junction" and "Three is a Magic Number" in his live act.

In 1992, ABC brought back the series, and it ran for another eight years. The following year, a theater group in Chicago began developing a musical revue based on the series.

"It was really exciting when they made a musical out of it," Dorough says. "They called me because they wanted to include 'Three is a Magic Number,' and 'Conjunction Junction.' "

Dorough went to see the show in Chicago and sat in on the song "Three is a Magic Number."

"We loved it," he says. "It's a wonderful show."

The show was a hit, and transferred Off Broadway in New York in 1995. The show and a shorter "junior version" have since been done by dozens of theater groups.

When the Pennsylvania Playhouse produced the junior version in April, Dorough attended and played a couple songs with the young cast.

"It was a really cute production," he says. "The kids are so talented."

Dorough continues to perform live and plays frequently at the Delaware Water Gap's Deer Head Inn, which is known for its jazz. He also plans to do a "Schoolhouse Rock!" show for the Scranton Jazz Festival in 2011.

"I play 80 percent jazz and a little 'Schoolhouse Rock!'," he says. "I think the series has remained popular because they're just great songs."

"Three is a Magic Number" has been especially successful, covered by groups ranging from Blind Melon to Jack Johnson and appearing in movies "Slackers," and "You, Me, and Dupree."

"It's great for me," Dorough says.

SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK LIVE!

•What: A musical revue for children age 3-12 based on the Saturday morning educational cartoon series from the 1970s

•When: 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. Wednesdays to Fridays and 10 a.m. Saturdays through July 30